This Week’s Vintage Finds #6 in Hudson (NY)

While living in England and traveling around Europe for two years (2009-11), we took many walking tours of various cities and came to really enjoy them. I did a search of walking tours in Hudson and found a small company that looked good and ran regular tours on Saturdays, so I made a reservation for 1 pm.

We left the house at about 9 am under cloudy skies, but with the promise of a bit of sunshine later in the day. Before heading south, we stopped at a couple of garage sales (of course!), but the pickins were slim. We did find a guitar case for our son ($4), a chrome over the door set of hooks ($1), a Texas Instruments calculator ($1), and an old Country Living Magazine (.50) to peruse in the car.

Vintage coffee pot–50¢

Very cool springy hook things just screaming to be bought–50¢ for both

After an hour or so of sales in the city of Albany, we drove across the river on Routes 9 & 20 to pick up 9J. I had high hopes of hitting a sale or two, but no such luck.We made one stop in the town of Greenport at a consignment shop in the Price Chopper plaza, but again, no luck. I found it quite over-priced and a bit boring.

Pulling into the city of Hudson at the top of Warren Street, we drove down toward the Hudson River and parked near a cute restaurant called Tanzy’s. A homey, reasonably-priced little eatery, I enjoyed a Greek salad while Bob chowed down on a short stack of dinner-plate-sized cornmeal and cheddar pancakes.

Completely full, we met up with our walking guide at the bottom of the hill. It’s hard to describe our tour with Mary Ann; it was, I guess, what you might call interesting.

We could see her from afar and could tell that she was having difficulty standing. This was confirmed as we made our way down several steps to  her car. She explained that we would be taking the “non-walking, walking tour”of Hudson!

She was quite charming and full of local anecdotes, particularly about the droves of NY-ers (including herself) who have relocated to Hudson and made new lives for themselves.

She had tales of this actor and that artist and this millionaire and that art dealer–none of we’d ever heard about, but she was entertaining. And we weren’t the least bit tired when we finished–imagine that! We saw lots of great architecture and blocks of great shopping.
The shops are almost all pretty formal looking with merchandise that is beautifully displayed–no bargains but lots of ideas!



Mid-afternoon, we popped in Swallow Coffee and ordered some Americanos–the place was mobbed, and rightfully so, the coffee was delicious! Right, is their festive fall display.
Late in the afternoon, we headed back to the car and drove just outside of Hudson to stop in at Habitat for Humanity’s Restore. They had the most awesome green storm window there for just $9! I

grabbed it and ran. I plan to put family photos in each rectangular space, and hang it horizontally in the hallway connecting our foyer to the kitchen.And thus ended our fun day together. (We had to get home to feed the dog by 5. Our day actually ended with take out while watching Foyle’s War, an English detective series set during WWII. The kids came home late and then we all went to bed!).

Bye for now,